Today was the start of our real work here in East Africa. Larry arrived on flight 117 at 7:00am this morning, and made it through customs without trouble and with all his luggage. Charles picked him up from the airport and brought him to the Southern Blue Hotel. We sat down together and enjoyed a very large breakfast of tea, coffee, and fruit juice, fresh watermelon, pineapple and papaya, cereal and hot milk (we don’t drink the milk cold here because of bacteria), toast, sausage, and eggs made to order. I’m not much of a breakfast person when I’m home, but I have to eat breakfast when in Africa, because we usually don’t eat a lunch. My son Luke will be glad to hear that I am eating breakfast!
Today we are heading north to visit several congregations north of Nairobi in the Nyeri and Nyahururu areas. We will be staying overnight in Nyeri, so we packed up what we needed and stored the rest in a storage room of the Southern Blue. At 10:00am we were on the road again. As we journeyed north out of Nairobi the landscape changed from a dirty mass of humanity to a beautiful and lush countryside. We were headed towards Mt. Kenya in central Kenya, a fertile and rich land used for growing tea, coffee and bananas on steep hills.
The first group that we visited was in Mahiga. This is one of the house churches that have been established in central Kenya, north of Nairobi, and in the area surrounding Nyeri. This was a very beautiful area rich in crops, and the birthplace of the current president of Kenya. The homes in this area had electricity brought in by wire, and were furnished with lights and other small electrical devices.
This congregation is fairly new and is served by a young man who is studying with Charles. He and the congregation are eager to hear and proclaim the truth of God’s Word. During our visit we had the opportunity to share the word of God with them and to encourage them in their walk with Christ. In many ways this small congregation reminded me of many of our “preaching stations” or house churches in the U.S. They meet regularly and are served by a willing and able man who going through training with our other men in the Nairobi district.
From Mahiga we traveled out of the rich lands near Mt. Kenya to the more barren and dry lands near the Aberdare Mountains.
Here we visited an older house church in Gatarakwa, which we had visited last year. There were fewer people here on this day because many were working, but the congregation has been continuing to meet, and grow in their knowledge of Jesus the Christ. This congregation was started by a large family in this area, because of their desire to grow in the truth about Christ. There are many other churches in the area; Catholic, Presbyterian, Full Gospel, Seventh Day Adventist, and African Free (i.e. Pentecostal Anglican church), as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses. But they realize that these churches are not teaching the truth and are eager to preserve among themselves and proclaim to others God’s saving truth. Thanks be to the Lord for giving these people such a dedication to hold on to and continue to learn His message of salvation in Jesus! Because of the rural areas of these stations, many of the people are in need of Bibles in their own languages. The pastor comes and teaches and has his own Bible or a Bible for use in the church, but most of the people do not have their own Bibles. This is an one area where we would like to help, but there are so many...
After visiting this station we returned to Nyeri where we checked in to a hotel for the night. By the time we arrived at the Hotel it was after 7:00, so we had been on the road for most of the day. Larry, Russ and I shared a room, which although it was nice, did not have hot water! It was very nicely furnished, but I personally would have rather slept on a mat on the floor where we had hot water, rather than the other way around!
Tomorrow we will meet with the leaders of the churches in the Nyeri area, then will travel north – across the equator – to our church in Nyahururu, and then the return trip to Nairobi.
In His service,
Nathanael
“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13).
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